Jagdharpura village of Karauli district (Rajasthan) faces a challenge due to its geographical location—it is situated close to those parts of the Chambal region which are known for their ravines. The process of ravines formation is caused by relentless water erosion to which this village too is highly vulnerable. The hard-working farmers here have been responding to this to the extent they can by taking steps to level the land when any early signs of ravine formation appear.
This village has also been suffering from water scarcity, at the level of irrigation water as well as drinking water. The brackishness of ground water adds further to their woes.
It is in this difficult situation that the activists of a voluntary organization SRIJAN first came to this village about five years ago and with their help the village could start several development efforts which have strengthened their capacity to cope better with difficult situations.
SRIJAN works with the village community here at several levels and one of its priorities has been to conserve rain water and create water ponds in the hilly area around the village. Over a period of time, says Bhawani Singh, team leader of SRIJAN here, this can raise the water table here and also improve the water quality.
For a few weeks the drinking water quality had improved also due to the supply of drinking water in taps recently, but then this stopped suddenly. An explanation being mentioned is that this happened because some persons in a neighboring village cut the pipelines. These are known to be powerful and well-connected persons, and they probably tried to use the new pipeline water for irrigation and in the process drinking water supply was disrupted, denying much-needed relief to people.
However there is still hope of water structures being created with the help of SRIJAN leading to sustainably improving the water supply position of this village. In addition by helping to check water erosion, these efforts also help to check the spread of ravines, another important need of this village. Help provided for land levelling and bund creation have also been helpful and the overall impact has been to bring under cultivation about 25 hectares of land which was not being cultivated earlier. At the same time significant productivity rise has taken place on nearly double this land. Land on which only a rainy season crop was being grown earlier now has winter crop of wheat and mustard also. In addition vegetable cultivation has also been taken up. Improved natural farming practices are being adopted by an increasing number of farmers.
In more recent times SRIJAN has moved towards giving higher priority to mobilization of women. They meet at regular intervals as members of a village development committee to take forward various development initiatives. A group meeting with several of these women brought out their deep and intense commitment to contributing to various development initiatives for improving the water and farming situation in the village. In the discussion women like Anusuiya, Dharmabai and Rangabai said that with agricultural production increasing and with the adoption of natural farming, there have been gains for nutrition and health in this village but at the same time the spread of guthka and smokeless tobacco consumption has harmed health and they’ll like to work to reduce such emerging problems too.
Apart from the help extended more directly by SRIJAN, this voluntary organization has helped to bring people closer to various development schemes of the government and several farmers could get subsidized sprinkler irrigation sets and some women could get sewing machines, improving livelihood prospects. Nevertheless, women said, there is still need for more employment opportunities for them.
Some of them are already members of Dang Vikas Farmer Producer Company and as a result likely to get more returns from their production of mustard using natural farming methods. There can be more farm produce processing opportunities and the women here said that they would like to be a part of more efforts to improve sustainable livelihood prospects.
Hence what is particularly encouraging in this village is that despite difficult situations caused due to factors beyond their control, the village is humming with hope and creativity, and this can be said all the more in the context of its women.
Keeping alive hope and creativity in difficult situations is an important achievement, and SRIJAN’s work here, supported by funds from Capri Foundation, has certainly contributed significantly to this.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Man over Machine, When the Two Streams Met and A Day in 2071.
